This week Bungie took on a team of people Joe Tung holds a grudge against, for whatever reason. This just goes to show that if you cross the mighty Joe Tung, you'll get a Humpday, so go do annoying things to him. I suggest bombarding him with XBL messages.

Since Halo 2 Vista is getting closer and closer, and certain things have changed since we last updated the Vista FAQ, we thought we'd give PC players some more details on what to expect from the forthcoming Vista conversion. New info inside!

This week we took a few minutes to talk to one of the overlords over at Tied the Leader. Check out what Dweezle had to say about the TTL community, shark feedings and to learn the shady dealings of certain Bungie employees.

1up Details Halo 3 Multiplayer Maps

Luke Smith has updated 1up.com with an in-depth analysis of the three Halo 3 multiplayer maps that the press was shown last month. He details their experiences on Snowbound, High Ground and Valhalla. The words "Joe Tung" and "whore" play a large role.

You can track all the progress of 1up's coverage on their Halo 3 page at Halo3.1up.com.

Halo 3 Content at 1up.com

The 1up and EGM editors who got to visit Bungie Studios about a month ago are finally starting to talk, beginning the onslaught of information you'll be seeing from them over the coming three weeks. They've all posted blog updates about their trips to Bungie and limited first impressions of the game. Check out Halo3.1up.com for the updates.

Hey I actually talk about the game in this one. In as much detail as I can get away with without being fired. Zomg! That is to say more detail than usual, but less than you want. Read it, absorb it like 2-ply bathroom tissue and enjoy it. Lots of new stuff coming up soon. You're going to like it.

The second proper Halo 3 Humpday Challenge. This time we played on the same maps featured in the next issue of EGM, so you can probably cross reference all these antics, weapons and maps with their screenshots next week.

GamingTV.org - A New Beginning

GamingTV.org is a new site for mainly videos, reviews, walkthroughs, gaming news, and just about anything under the sun you can think of. We aim to be the best at what we do(someday) and form a community of fun people who are respectful and love to game. Check for contests&more. GamingTV.org - A new beginning.

GamingTV is a new venture by Haphazardly, trigger119, HitmanofGod,Twilkey, and Shiruken. Our new template and forums make the site more feature rich and aesthetically pleasing....there is also quite a bit of new content, most of which right now is halo related. Check out the Media Contest when you visit.

As far as Halo goes, we have quite a few old videos including the oldest and first Halo fan made video ever, Warthog Jump. We do streaming only so keep that in mind. Load time on videos should not be too much of an issue. All the videos are working so please be patient while the video loads. Halo right now is our biggest section and sure to keep you entertained for awhile. If you have a video in ANY game that needs a host, let me or a admin now. Our contact information is easy to find on the site. If its good enough(our discretion) we will host it. Also check out our feature rich forum for fun arcade games, or just a community that is small and growing.

Our site is all about Game Videos, Reviews, Walkthroughs, etc. basically anything under the sun gaming related. We also have a Last fm group, and a IRC Chat Channel.

Our upcoming Media Contest is sure to be of interest to moviemakers as the prize pot is quite good, including Xbox 360 games and more to be announced. For more information visit our site.

Also for extra time wasting head over to our RPG forum. GTV's RPG is a fantasy world created by Tanner Pearce (Hitman) The owner of GamingTV and Tommy Wilkey (Twilkey SRT) It focus's around 2 Empires, who both have to try and take control of the world they live on, starting with Urith the island they live on. In the RPG you will chose what you are and who you fight for. its text based, and is only for those with imagination and patience.So stop on by, we'd love to have you!

Bungie.net Avatars Updated

Last month I announced that I would begin taking avatar submissions and today we've put up some of the best of them. With the help of Chris Gossett and Achronos, there are about 50 new avatars available to you to choose from. Much thanks to all those who submitted avatars.

If yours wasn't posted it either didn't pass my or Achronos' screening, wasn't in .gif format, wasn't 90x90 or said something mean about my mother. I'll keep accepting submissions for a little while longer while people rectify these problems and then probably shut it down a little while from now. Thanks again, folks!

Matchbox360 Presents XL!

MatchBox360.co.uk is proud to announce the first XL event! XL is the first European Xbox and Xbox 360 LAN tournament. Featuring Halo 2 and Pro Evolution Soccer 6 with over £2000 worth of prizes.

On the 25th & 26th of November MatchBox360's XL invades the Birmingham NEC for an action packed weekend of Xbox and Xbox 360 gaming action. Players will be able to take part in Halo 2 Free For All, Double Team and the first ever European Four versus Four as well as the Pro Evolution Soccer 6 World Cup. On top of this XL has free play all weekend and have exclusive hands on action with some of the latest Xbox 360 titles!

To find out more about the event and to pre-order your tickets check out the MatchBox360 and XL website here.

UNSCDF Contest Entries Posted

The UNSCDF Fan-Fiction contest has come to a close, the judging has
finished, and the five winning entries are now on display at the UNSCDF website.
The semi-finalists will be posted soon, as well. Congratulations to all the participants!

The UNSCDF Fan-Fiction contest has come to a close, the judging has
finished, and the five winning entries are now on display at the UNSCDF website.
The semi-finalists will be posted soon, as well. Congratulations to all the participants!

1up.com Takes Heat Off Bungie

Over at 1up.com, Luke Smith - part of the press contingent who have played Halo 3 - has gone ahead and corrected and expanded upon some of the rumors that have surfaced over the weekend as a result of the magazine scans that hit on Friday. Check out his article for the real deal from someone with first-hand experience.

This week we hear from Halo 2 for Windows Vista developer Shogo Ishii about the current state of the game. Shogo talks about a recent demo PC Gamer Magazine was privy to, where the game is from a graphical standpoint and about their progress on the audio front.

Last week, Bungie began accepting submissions for fan art. In just a week we saw an incredible amount of art, from MS Paint creations and Photoshop jobs to fully original murals. Today is the first monthly installment of the Bungie.net Fan Art update, featuring our favorite pieces of the month.

Four Billion Played and Counting

Roger Wolfson, Bungie's database programmer extraordinaire, reports today that we have officially surged over the four billion games played mark, a little under two years after the game's launch. He also notes that we're close to hitting the four million unique players mark, not too shabby. Read on for some more detailed usage statistics from the past month.

Ghosts of Onyx Available

Ghosts of Onyx will be officially released tomorrow, but reports have been trickling in all weekend that it's available at various outlets. You should certainly be able to get it tomorrow if you want to wait a day to read it, but you may be rewarded if you give a call today to see if it's available.

Halo Trilogy Xbox 360 Theme

Major Nelson has announced a Halo Trilogy theme newly released to Xbox Live Marketplace. You can read all the details in Major Nelson's blog, but the basic gist is that you can get it for free with the Xbox 360 Halo faceplate - in stores tomorrow - or you can just grab it with some Microsoft Points.

RDKLeague to host Online FFA Event

On the 18th of November 2006, RDKLeague will be hosting an online Free-For-All event with no eligibility restrictions. Prizes provided by JoystickJunkies . For more information check out RDKLeague.

RDKLeague, known to many as having what is arguably the largest collection of competitive European halo players, is opening its doors fully to allow players from other continents to compete on a level playing field. The event will take place on Saturday the 17th of November at 15:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The event will contribute to player's rankings on site through the addition of points based on tournament performance in what is known as the "Marathon System".

The event has also received support from UK Clothing/Lifestyle brand & tournament partners JoystickJunkies, who will be providing the prize of a choice of t-shirt for the winner. The event shall be the first of a new season of competitive gaming spread across Xbox, Xbox 360 & LAN-Based Action.

For more information on the event, check out the Tournament home (that includes a handy F.A.Q.) Here.

GIA Halo 3 Weapon/Vehicle Design Competition

What with all the rumours and fuss about Halo 3, Games in Action decided to host a competition allowing people to submit designs for vehicles or weapons they would like to see in the new game. Of course its all in the name of fun but prizes may be awarded for the best submissions.

So if you want to show off your art skills or have an awesome idea for a weapon or vehicle that you think would be perfect for Halo 3 then head over to www.gamesinaction.com and sign up on the forums for to take part in the competition. If you are already a member then clicking this link will take you straight to the appropriate thread.

All the rules are in that thread and remember this is all in the name of fun, but prizes may be awarded to the best pieces of art we get. Oh and we will happily post all winning pieces in a news article on the site and consider making some avatars out of the art work, with permission from the owner of course.

So good luck and hope to see some fantastic art work from you guys.

This is not a Bungie contest, Bungie is in no way affiliated with it and should not be contacted for support in this matter.

Oh noes! Damage control! Scans from a Euro mag leaked today, showing the first ever multiplayer shots of a Halo 3 alpha build. Chaos ensues. Anyway, we touch on that and discuss the state of multiplayer matchmaking in Halo 3. Hurrah for stress.

Scans? You don't want no stinkin' scans!

It has become apparent that the promised gaming magazines are now hitting the stands (or are at least being mailed to subscribers in some areas). They do contain much awaited and long-promised Halo 3 content.

A word of advice and another word of warning.

These magazines are copyrighted material and are available to their subscribers and people who purchase the magazine. Scanning images, posting those images, scanning or posting transcriptions of the articles is a violation of the magazine's copyright and ownership of the material.

Anyone posting scans or text from these magazines will be permanently blacklisted from this site. No other warnings, no appeals, nothing.

Members asking (or begging, or encouraging) scans to be posted, IM'ed or PM'ed will likewise be blacklisted for at least a week. If we are advised to increase that penalty, we gladly will.

Bungie.Net cannot and will not be a part of people intentionally violating copyright and ownership laws. Anyone who uses this site for that purpose is not a friend nor a fan of Bungie or this community.

Thanks for your time.

Slight Edit; Please bear in mind... having any links to released photos/scans in your signature will warrant a permanent blacklisting as well.

The Bungie crew plus guests took on the guys over at Hollywood Halo Productions, best known for their machinima. In three close games, the Bungie crew fought a hard match against the seasoned Hollywood Halo crew.

Little is known thus far of the team developing Halo 2 for Windows Vista. We're about to change all that for you. We take a brief look at the members of Hired Gun, the team handling the bulk of H2V's development.

This week we sit down with Zoom Demon, of the Cayote Cavegirlsabout the group, her role in the group and their recent charity event, Fight Like a Girl. Read on to learn that and more. Also because she is hawt chix.

Updated: Wednesday Forum Downtime

[Updated]: This maintenance is complete.

On Wednesday, October 25th, Bungie.net will be offline from 9am to approximately 10am Pacific time for maintenance. Bungie.net's forums and account creation will remain offline until approximately 1pm Pacific time.

While most bungie.net upgrades can and do happen without any downtime at all, this particular update involves changing a lot of internal database structures to make them more efficient. As such, we can't have you guys making changes to the database while we work on it. The main site will be down for about 1 hour, starting at 9am Pacific time. The forums and account creation will remain down until around 1pm Pacific, however.